This week the China-watching twitterverse was surprised to discover that Hu Xijin, the editor of the Global Times, was now tweeting. That the editor of the Global Times, an "angry government mouthpiece"
that supports China's policy of Internet censorship, was accessing a
site blocked in China raised a few eyebrows and provoked several people
to ask what VPN
(a Virtual Private Network) he was using to evade the controls.
Somewhat defensively, Hu responded to a characterization of him by The Wall Street Journal's ChinaRealTime blog
as a "staunch defender of China's need to censor" by tweeting that he
supported the gradual lifting of controls and believed "speech freedom
is inevitable in China."

A very long discussion in the December 2011 issue of Foreign Affairs Review, the journal of the Foreign Affairs University, provides some context for what Hu's tweeting might be about. The article, entitled "Global Politics in the Web 2.0 Era"
is a discussion about how communication technologies are changing
politics. The cases cited are the usual ones--the protests after the
Iranian elections, the Arab Spring, SMS being used to organize protests
against Philippine President Joseph Estrada, the Obama campaign's use of
Facebook and other social media--and political dynamics described are
also now well known--web 2.0 empowers the individual to spread
information, flattens hierarchies, and lowers the cost of mobilizing
groups. Democratization and the growth of civil society are trends
difficult to control, and as a result China must have a strategy for
bringing about gradual change.

Online expression by Chinese netizens, according to the article, can
be "immature, aggressive, or empty." But if China can develop an
effective legal system and internal controls, resolve complaints from
society, urge people to contribute policy suggestions and better
understand national conditions, and strengthen the capacity of the state
and the Party, then web 2.0 technology should be viewed "at least [as]
an opportunity that outweighs the challenges."

There is a foreign policy component of the strategy as well. China
must defend its Internet sovereignty. It must raise cybersecurity. It
must be on guard against a Wikileak-style strategic crisis. It has to be
vigilant against malicious rumors and outside interference. China must
oppose America's Internet Freedom agenda, but it also must do more than
be reactive. The Chinese government must develop a diplomacy 2.0. The
United States and Europe are already using microblogs like Sina Weibo to
spread their message within China. During bilateral exchanges,
diplomatic negotiations, and international conferences, Chinese
officials should use Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to spread their
policy views. Use of social media will be an important part of building
soft power.

Two years ago the Beijing-based techology analyst Bill Bishop
argued that it would be hard for China to build soft power successfully
without a global Internet strategy: hard to win hearts and minds when
you censor Twitter and Facebook, language would be a barrier, and no
major Chinese Internet firms would succeed in foreign markets. This
seems right, but perhaps the Chinese have lowered their sights. The goal
may be to stay safely in the Chinese Internet (and ensure the safety of
the Chinese Internet from the outside) while only occasionally dipping
in and out of the Internet in the West. At this point it is hard to tell
if Hu Xijin thinks he can actively engage outside of China. As Tom Lasseter notes, right now Hu is only following one account on Twitter: The Global Times.

This article originally appeared at CFR.org, an Atlantic partner site.

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